Body By Noah

Some women manage to go though pregnancy only gaining 20-25lbs. To me, they are as magical as unicorns and leprechauns. Given that I easily gain 5lbs after a big meal and am known to pack on 10lbs in a week-long vacation, I am obviously not one of those women. I knew I would be tipping the scale with some pretty hefty numbers by the end of my pregnancy. And so I did, gaining almost 40lbs, 39lbs to be exact. Here is how my tale of many gained and lost pounds unfolds.

I started my pregnancy journey at my goal weight of 125lbs.

At about week 8 or 190 days before delivery I was at 130lbs

and here is me 3 days before delivery at 164lbs (Jane the giant and her chard stock).

When we got back from the hospital 3 days after delivery, I was down 18lbs, weighing in at 146lbs.

3 weeks post-partum I was down 5 more pounds to 141lbs.

Another 3 weeks went by and at 6 weeks after child, I was down another 6lbs to 135lbs.

It took another 6 weeks to lose 5lbs. 12 weeks after childbirth, I was getting into my comfortable weight range of 130lbs.

At this point, I was happy with my weight and body shape. I was fitting into most of my pre-pregnancy clothes and accounted the last five pounds to my milk jugs. But to my surprise, I kept slowly shrinking. At 24 weeks post delivery, I was back at my goal weight of 125lbs!

So how did I get back to my pre-pregnancy weight in 24 weeks?

During Pregnancy

I exercised regularly, 7-9 hours per week. I did weight training and yoga three times a week. After the first trimester I replaced running with lower impact exercise: spinning, Zumba and walking. You might remember my 30-week post on reasons to exercise while pregnant.

Luckily, besides red meat, I did not have any strong cravings (except that one time when I made my husband drive all over town in search of a freshly baked chocolate donut. He found one in the University District. Apparently, there is a late-night donut shop targeting drunken students and occasional pregnant ladies.)

I kept my food indulgencies at bay. Even though we often ate dinners out (I could not stand the smells while cooking), I avoided greasy, fatty foods.

I rubbed three different body butters three times per day to avoid stretch marks. Not sure which one did the trick (or maybe it was the combination of all three), but my belly is stretch-mark free so I can still wear my bikinis come summer time (thank goodness).

Post Delivery:

Early in my pregnancy I made up my mind that once the baby comes, I will be back on my vegetarian diet, cooking most meals at home. And I stuck to my word. Right in the hospital, I was eating oatmeal and veggie burgers. When we got home, it was hard to find time to cook, but I made it a priority. Eric took over grocery shopping and watched Noah, giving me time to prepare my favorite healthy meals. I recently came across a statistic that, on average, vegans weigh 18% less, and vegetarians 8% less than people that eat meat and dairy. US Weekly also recently listed three celebrity moms (Kristen Bell, Jenna Dewan and Hilaria Thomas) that slimmed down in record time post-baby by following vegan diet and a regular exercise regime. My takeaway – if you want to lose weight, go vegan!

A week before delivery, I bought a belly bandit and packed it with our hospital bag. The day after delivery, I could not even fasten it around my waist. The next day, however, I could get the ends of the Velcro to touch together (as long as I held my breath), and so I wore the belly bandit for six hours a day for six weeks straight (despite the Texas summer heat). Besides serving as a girdle to tighten my mid-section, it became a physical barrier in helping with portion sizes at mealtime. At the end of the six weeks, I out-shrunk the belly bandit .

As soon as Noah was one week old, I started with light exercise of walking around the neighborhood. At first it was one mile, then two, then three, soon enough I was doing jogging/walking intervals. Noah got so used to heading out in his stroller each morning that if we are not out by 10:30am, a loud reminder can be heard in our house “Maaaa…Waaa.” On the rare occasion that it rains, it’s hard to tell who is more unhappy being stuck inside, mama or baby. So every weekday I am outside running 4-5 miles. My weight training has been cut down to one day per week – Saturdays when Eric takes Noah for a walk instead.

I now I understand why so many women choose to breastfeed their children way into their toddler years. Let the truth be told ladies, breastfeeding is the best weight-loss scheme out there.

I no longer have a sedentary job and Noah keeps me plenty busy so I don’t snack nearly as much as I used to during the day. I am always up and about the house all day long tidying up, doing endless laundry, and attending to Noah. (You can read about my new mom routine here).